Jeremy Abramson, MD

Associate Professor
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Dr. Abramson is Director of the Lymphoma Program and the Jon and Jo Ann Hagler Chair in Lymphoma at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Abramson earned his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and a Masters Degree in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School.  He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, followed by a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Abramson’s clinical and research interests are in non-Hodgkin lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphoma, and CLL. His research involves identifying the design and conduct of clinical trials of new cancer therapies and cellular immunotherapies in these diseases.

Christine Chen, MHPE, MD, FRCPC

Clinician Investigator
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Toronto, ON

Dr. Christine Chen is the Medical Director of the Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Program and the Clinical Cell Therapy Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM), University Health Network (UHN), in Toronto, Canada.  She is appointed as Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (U of T) as a member of the clinical research group for Multiple Myeloma and related mature B-cell disorders, including Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM).  PM is the largest tertiary care center for cancer in Canada, performing over 300 autologous stem cell transplants, and seeing over 400 new referrals for Myeloma per year.  Dr. Chen led the implementation of standard of care CAR T-cell therapy at PM and oversees the clinical care of over 50 CAR T patients per year.  As a clinical investigator, Dr. Chen’s research interests are in the development of novel approaches for Myeloma, WM and CLL.

Dr. Chen underwent her internal medicine training at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and hematology residency training at McMaster University in Hamilton.  Upon completing a transplant clinical research fellowship at PM, she joined the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology and obtained her Masters in Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (U of T).  She therefore takes an active role in medical education and has previously acted as both the U of T Hematology Training Program Director and the Myeloma Fellowship Director.

Matthew Davids, MD

Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

After obtaining an A.B. in chemistry at Harvard College, Dr. Davids completed his M.D. at Yale University School of Medicine. He served as an intern, resident, and assistant chief resident in internal medicine at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He then
completed his fellowship in hematology and oncology in Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, and a Masters in Medical Science (M.M.S.c.) at Harvard Medical School. He is an attending physician in the Division of Lymphoma, where he serves at the Director of Clinical Research, as well as Associate Director of the CLL Center. He is
also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and attends on the inpatient hematologic malignancies service at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Dr. Davids has an active translational research program in CLL and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, focusing on studying apoptosis (in particular Bcl-2 biology) in his laboratory, and leading
clinical trials to evaluate novel therapeutic strategies in patients with CLL and other hematologic malignancies. Much of his work has focused on the clinical development of new therapeutic regimens in CLL utilizing combinations of targeted inhibitors of Bcl-2, B cell receptor pathway kinases, and other novel agents, as well as utilizing checkpoint
blockade to enhance anti-tumor immunity in patients with hematologic malignancies who relapse post allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Marina Ebied, BSc, PharmD

Hematology, Clinical Inpatient Pharmacist
Cross Cancer Institute
Edmonton, Alberta

Marina Ebied is a hematology and clinical inpatient pharmacist at the Cross Cancer Institute. I completed my Bachelor of Science at the University of Alberta and proceeded to complete my PharmD at the University of Waterloo. With a strong interest in hematology, I joined the ambulatory team in 2017 and the inpatient team oncology and bone marrow transplant team in 2020. My clinical areas of interest include multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Beth Faiman, PhD, CNP

Adult Nurse Practitioner, Dept of Hematology/Oncology
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, OH

Beth Faiman is currently an adult nurse practitioner in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

She has edited several books and authored many chapters and research papers, and led the development of International Myeloma management guidelines, including Editor of the 3rd Edition of the Multiple Myeloma Textbook for Nurses by ONS publishing company (2021).
Beth Faiman influenced cancer care practice by presenting at numerous international and US national conferences, and served as lecture chair at many of them.
In 2013, Dr. Faiman served as co-chair of the 1st Nursing Symposium at the International Myeloma Workshop in Kyoto, Japan and subsequent conferences which includes the 6th nursing symposium in Los Angeles in 2022.
Her scholarly publications and presentations are highly cited by peers and colleagues.

Frances Folkman, BScPharm, ACPR

Pharmacy Clinical Practice Leader
Adult Cancer, Southern Alberta

Frances graduated from the University of Alberta Faculty of Pharmacy in 1993.  She completed a Year 1 pharmacy residency at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in 1994.

Frances is a Pharmacy Clinical Practice Leader who has worked at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, Alberta since 2002.  Her clinical practice is in ambulatory neuro oncology.  She is also the residency coordinator for the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Cancer Care pharmacy residency program.

In the area of diversity and inclusion, Frances has been a member of a Clinical Practice Leader anti-racism committee since 2020. She has facilitated diversity and inclusion discussions provincially with the AHS pharmacy residents for 2 years.

Martin Hutchings, MD, PhD

Haemato-Oncologist, Senior Consultant
Department of Haematology
Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital
Copenhagen, Denmark

Dr Martin Hutchings is a haemato-oncologist and a senior consultant from the Department of Haematology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital. He is responsible for lymphoma treatment and clinical research and leads Denmark’s only dedicated Phase 1 unit for experimental treatment of haematological malignancies, which is a leading site for early development of lymphoma immunotherapy.

After obtaining his medical degree and master’s degree (2000), he trained in nuclear medicine until pursuing his current specialisation in clinical oncology.  In 2006, he defended his PhD on PET/CT in Hodgkin lymphoma.

Dr Hutchings is an active member of the EORTC Lymphoma Group, and chaired the group from 2013 until 2017. He leads a number of clinical and translational studies in the field of lymphoma, with an emphasis on phase 1 haematology studies and on phase 2 and 3 Hodgkin lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma, while maintaining a special scientific interest in the role of molecular imaging of malignant lymphoma. He has written numerous journal articles and book chapters and acts as an active research supervisor.

Alisha Shivji, BSc, PharmD, ACPR

Clinical Pharmacist
Foothills Medical Centre
Tom Baker Centre
Calgary, AB

Alisha is a clinical pharmacist on the inpatient oncology unit at Foothills Medical Centre and at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy from University of Alberta in 2019, after which she completed an oncology pharmacy residency with Alberta Health Services. Her practice was focused on outpatient hematology from 2020 to 2021 and after which she shifted to inpatient hematology and blood and marrow transplant, with a special interest in adult inpatient malignant hematology.

Constantine Tam, MD, FRACP, FRCPA

Professor of Haematology
Monash University
Head of Lymphoma Service
Alfred Health
Melbourne, AU

Professor Constantine (Con) Tam is Head of Lymphoma Service at Alfred Health, and Professor of Haematology at Monash University. Con received his M.B.B.S.(Hons) and M.D. degrees from the University of Melbourne. After dual training in Haematology and Haematopathology, Con completed his Leukemia Fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas. Prior to moving to the Alfred, Con served as Disease Group Lead for Low Grade Lymphoma and CLL at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre & Royal Melbourne Hospital for over 10 years.

Con is passionate about developing new treatment for blood cancers. He is the global lead for the BTK inhibitor zanubrutinib, and oversaw its development from the first human dosed (in Melbourne) to successful international licensing studies worldwide. Con designed and performed the first global study to combine ibrutinib and venetoclax, publishing the results in the New England Journal of Medicine 5 years after inception. In 2015, he became the Australian lead for the pivotal study of Tisagenlecleucel in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, leading to public funding for CAR T-cells as standard treatment in Australia.

The publication record for Con includes 259 peer-reviewed papers in New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood and other top-tier journals. His work has been cited >18,000 times in the literature. Con is Associate Editor for Blood Advances.

Chris Venner, MD, FRCPC
Medical Oncologist
BC Cancer
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Venner completed his medical training at the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta. He later attended the University of British Columbia to complete a sub-specialty degree in Hematology. He then went on to pursue a Plasma Cell Dyscrasias Fellowship jointly through the Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Program of British Columbia, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and the London School of Medicine and the National Amyloidosis Centre. He subsequently joined the National Amyloid Centre as a staff physician before returning to Edmonton and the Cross Cancer Institute and led the Malignant Hematology Program and the Myeloma/Plasma Cell Dyscrasias group. In 2021 he joined the BC Cancer – Vancouver Centre to advance the Plasma Cell Dyscrasias Program. In addition to being actively involved in hematology clinical trials, his current academic interest involves clinical outcomes research in plasma cell dyscrasias, examining the evolution of therapy in these diseases and the impact novel combinations have on survival. Much of this work is done through the Canadian Myeloma Research Group through activities in the CMRG Canadian Multiple Myeloma Database initiative which he led as Chair (2014-2021), and the CMRG clinical trials group. He is also the Co-Chair of the Myeloma Sub-Committee with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group.

Diego Villa, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Clinical Associate Professor
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Diego Villa is Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia and a medical oncologist at the BC Cancer – Vancouver Cancer Center.  He is involved in the care of patients with lymphoid malignancies and breast cancer.  His research interests include of management of mantle cell lymphoma, primary and secondary CNS lymphomas, transformed lymphomas, and the role of PET/CT in aggressive lymphoma.  Dr. Villa has ongoing research collaborations with Canadian, American, European, and Australian lymphoma groups. He is principal investigator of clinical trials evaluating novel therapies in B-cell lymphomas. He is also the local principal investigator for various international lymphoma and breast cancer clinical trials open in Vancouver.  He actively participates in the teaching of medical students, residents, and fellows at BC Cancer and VGH, and is the medical oncology faculty coordinator for the UBC Department of Medicine.  He has about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed literature.

Julie Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO

Professor
Chief, Hematology/Oncology
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NB

Dr. Vose is the Neumann M. and Mildred E. Harris Professor and Chief in the Division of Oncology/Hematology at UNMC which includes 32 physicians specializing in Medical Hematology/Oncology. Dr. Vose received her medical degree, completed her residency in Internal Medicine, served as Chief Resident, and completed a Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at UNMC. Dr. Vose also completed a sabbatical at Stanford University.   In addition, she completed an MBA in Health Administration through the University of Colorado Business School.  Dr. Vose has focused her career on translational research for improvement in the therapy of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) by developing a focused translational research program evaluating novel therapies such as monoclonal antibodies, immunotherapy, pathway directed agents, stem cell transplantation, and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) treatments. Dr. Vose has been recognized for her NHL research on a national and international level through research awards and invited lectureships worldwide. In addition, her funding record and publications in NHL therapy and transplantation research have added substantially to the research and knowledge base for the therapy of lymphoma.  She has published over 400 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals.  She was the 2015-16 President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the largest international society of health care professionals who perform research and treat cancer.